Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) filed an amended Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) ETF with the SEC on March 4 and provided a $500 million loan facility to Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) with option to extend to $1 billion, signaling aggressive crypto expansion across products and mining infrastructure.
The Bitcoin ETF Filing
Morgan Stanley submitted an updated S-1 filing naming Coinbase Custody and Bank of New York Mellon as custody partners, combining crypto security with traditional banking infrastructure.
The Trust will be a passive product that simply tracks Bitcoin’s price rather than actively trading it.
The filing makes clear that Morgan Stanley Investment Management will not sell Bitcoin at market highs or buy more during dips.
The Trust will avoid leverage and derivatives, focusing on simple price exposure rather than speculation.
Additionally, Morgan Stanley filed for the “Morgan Stanley Solana ETF Trust” in January, signaling the bank is targeting the broader crypto ecosystem beyond Bitcoin.
The $500M Mining Loan
Core Scientific secured a $500 million financing facility from Morgan Stanley on Thursday.
The 364-day loan agreement includes an accordion feature allowing the company to increase total commitments by an additional $500 million, bringing potential total capacity to $1 billion.
Borrowings carry an interest rate of SOFR plus 250 basis points.
Core Scientific intends to use proceeds to fund real property acquisition, pre-development costs, and procurement of additional energy contracts.
The proceeds will also fund equipment purchases to convert existing fleet into infrastructure supporting compute-intensive AI workloads.
CEO Adam Sullivan emphasized the strategic value: “This strengthens our liquidity and enhances our financial flexibility as we execute our development and go-to-market strategy. With this additional financing capacity, we can operate decisively by deploying capital to expedite project ready-for-service timelines.”
The AI Pivot
Core Scientific is repositioning its business away from Bitcoin mining toward high-density colocation services for AI customers.
The company expects to monetize “substantially all” of its Bitcoin reserves in 2026 to fund the transition.
As of December 31, 2025, the miner held 2,537 BTC, carrying fair value of $222 million.
However, Core Scientific already sold over 1,900 BTC in January for approximately $175 million, leaving roughly 630 BTC remaining.
Sullivan said Bitcoin mining is now “essentially in runoff,” with operations maintained primarily to satisfy minimum power commitments as legacy sites convert to AI-focused colocation.
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